It was drizzling rain as we drove through New London, CT,
again...
and Providence, Rhode Island.
The GPS took us down so many narrow, pot-holed roads, I was
beginning to wonder if I had programmed it for “car” mode rather than “RV” mode, but we found the entrance
sign and drove down the dirt-packed road to the park. We disconnected the car and drove through the
campground in search of a site where we could get full hookups and satellite
reception – not an easy task in a heavily wooded campground. We tried site #185 that the office
recommended and after several minutes of maneuvering the RV to just the right
spot on the site, we picked up satellite.
You would think that with a self-contained RV with automatic levelers that you could just pull up anywhere and park; but it’s not that easy. You have to find the best spot on the site where we think it will be the most level, that will reach all the hookups, that will get the best satellite reception, and where you can have the best view. In newer and more expensive campgrounds, this is easier to do. In older campgrounds, and particularly state parks, it can be very, very challenging.
We liked the setting of Gateway to Cape Cod and its
“woodsy-ness”. It made us feel like we were
camping and not just RVing. Unfortunately, it rained most
of the time we were there so we didn’t get to enjoy the woods very much.
On Wednesday, we decided to go see where the Pilgrims
landed, Plymouth Rock. We found it.
Plymouth Rock is located under a portico …
Located on the shore.
We learned after reading the historical sign at the Rock
that the story of the Pilgrims landing on Plymouth Rock is actually based on
“tradition” rather than “history”.
(Bummer! I guess someone’s going
to tell me next that there is no Santa Claus or Easter Bunny either. Wrong!)
The rock is not even mentioned in the chronicles of William Bradford or
Edward Winslow, two of the original Pilgrims who came over on the Mayflower.
The rock was not identified as the Pilgrims’ landing place
until 120 years later when the rock was about to be moved for construction of a
wharf. At that time, Thomas Faunce, a 95
year-old Elder in the First Church, who knew some of the original Pilgrims,
said that the Rock was the place where the Pilgrims landed. From then on, the rock was preserved as
Plymouth Rock, even though it was split in two and the top half moved to Town
Square in 1774 as a monument. In 1880,
the top half was reunited with the bottom half.
Then, in 1921, the 300th anniversary of the Pilgrims’
landing, the portico was built over Plymouth Rock. Probably more information than you ever
wanted to know about Plymouth Rock.
What was more intriguing to think about for us, was to look out in this bay full of boats…
And try to imagine what it would have been like almost 400
years ago when the Pilgrims landed.
There is a replica of the Mayflower in the harbor.
There were 102 passengers on the Mayflower. While only one person died during the voyage, over half died the first winter after arriving in America leaving only 53 pilgrims left to celebrate the first Thanksgiving in 1621.
Across the street from Plymouth Rock was a little restaurant called “Pebbles” where Chuck had his 2nd cup of clam chowder since beginning our trip into New England. He said it was almost as good as S&P Oyster Company’s but not quite.
Since it was still raining and we had nothing better to do,
we decided to drive on out to the tip of Cape Cod, which was about 75 miles
away. On the way, we crossed this huge
canal that connects Cape Cod to Buzzards Bay.
A really nice bike trail parallels both side of the canal.
After we crossed the canal, we drove and drove and drove (it seemed like it was more than 75 miles). As we got closer to Cape Cod National Seashore, there were huge sand dunes on both sides of the road.
Inside the park, we parked the car and walked out over a boardwalk …
…to a building that was once a U. S. Life Saving Station. From 1872 through 1915, crewmen at the U. S. Life-Saving Station watched and patrolled the beach looking for imperiled vessels. If a wreck was discovered, the station crew would shoot out rescue lines or launch surfboats to attempt to save the endangered ships.
The sand here is much coarser than Florida sand.
Nothing but 3,000 miles of Atlantic Ocean between us and Europe.
We saw some seals swimming offshore.
To our right, we could see the Park Rangers’ headquarters.
It was very windy and chilly at the shore.
Cape Cod National Seashore has miles of bike trails running
through it that would have been fun to check out had it not been freezing!
We drove further through the park and saw this lighthouse
way out on a point.
Next, we drove through Provincetown located at the very tip
of Cape Cod.
After driving through the town, we decided to head back home. Route 6 is the second longest highway in the United States beginning in Provincetown and ending in Bishop, California. We noticed a sign on the side of the road when we started back saying it is 3,205 miles to California. We decided not to go that far on this "day-trip." :)
So we drove and drove and drove back home, crossing the canal once again on the way back home.
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